From Far and Looking Across

How far can the human eye see?  I looked across the lake yesterday and saw sky rather than Toronto.  Is the following true? "The Earth's surface curves out of sight at a distance of 3.1 miles, or 5 kilometers. But our visual acuity extends far beyond the horizon. If Earth were flat, or if you were standing atop a mountain surveying a larger-than-usual patch of the planet, you could perceive bright lights hundreds of miles distant. On a dark night, you could even see a candle flame flickering up to 30 mi. (48 km) away". It comes from livescience.com     CLEVELAND – Scientists say it's a mirage, but others swear that when the weather is right, Clevelanders can see across Lake Erie and spot Canadian trees and buildings 50 miles away. Eyewitness accounts have long been part of the city's history. Jul 31, 2006.  This article is HERE.  I find out that you can see the Toronto Skyline from the Lake Ontario Shoreline in New York. I found a YouTube video of the Toronto skyline from New York State -  it was great as the lake waves were large and turbulent, so it looked like Toronto was sinking below the furious waves.  The distance is 30 miles. The distance from Niagara-on-the-Lake is 32 miles or 51 kilometres, so Toronto is often visible. And it is just a little farther to Grimsby at 55 kilometres or 34 miles.  Can we see Buffalo from Toronto?  I read that the answer is no - seems to me that is quite the distance.  Buffalo is 95 kilometres - 59 miles, so is much farther. Niagara Falls is visible from the CN Tower at 68 kilometres.  Of course, we've got the advantage of the height. Here's a post that shows Toronto from various locations across the lake.    My view across the lake yesterday at Flat Rock Cellars showed nothing at all - if one is looking for Toronto.  It shows the wonderful vineyards and the rusty shed down below.  So I've included a wonderful scene from the Watering Can in Vineland.

Is that 9ty or 9tee?

How has written language evolved?  There was no formal learning of  words with letters and numbers together.  And yet, when personalized license plates became widely available, the creativity burst forth and all kinds of 'play-words' evolved to be seen on passing cars.  I took a look at Plates4Less: "We at Plates 4 Less love to get creative in looking for private number plates so that we can give your vehicle a splash of personality! Our expert search team have created this page especially for people looking for private number plates featuring the number 9. We have been as crafty as we can, trying out as many different combinations as possible to get the best matches available. We hope you find the masterpiece you’ve been looking for! " The plates4less search team.  What makes a license plate cost 33,000, 306,000 or 6,500 pounds?  Our brain has an innate ability to translate letters and numbers.  This is the title of a post at turnerink.co.uk "F1gur471v3ly 5p34k1ng? How your brain can read words made of numbers" Didn't that make you smile? At the Fun with Words site there are observations about numbers, as spelled out in English, as in "Eight is the first number alphabetically, zero is the last" or this: "Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice In Wonderland, once noted that "eleven plus two" and "twelve plus one" use the same letters and produce the same sum." To conclude, we look to letter and number humour on jokeomania.weebly.com: Why was the 6 sad? A: 7 8 9 What did the alphabet say when it fell down? A: I-M-O-K Which rock channel do they letters of the alphabet watch? A: M-T-V Where does Mr.Alphabet sit when he comes home from work? A: In his E-Z chair What kind of sale did the number store have A: 2-4-1 Which letter and number when put together mean victory? A: I-1 What monsters do you find in the haunted alphabet? A: Killer B's Which letters and what number tell you to be careful? A: B-4-WARNED! What to letters mean good-bye?  A: C-U

Toronto From Across

This is Toronto - on the other side of the Lake.  So where is the best view of Toronto?  The top picture is from Grimsby Beach, the second one from Mike Weir Winery on Locust Lane, and the third one from Flat Rock Cellars on 7 Avenue in Jordan.  The bottom picture shows the Flat Rock Cellars Building from the road leading to it.  The view from Flat Rock is excellent with the vineyards stretching out below it. I was on Locust Lane last week and took pictures from the Mike Weir winery.  They feel they have best view.  I've also heard Vineland Estates consider itself to have the best view. And Peninsula Ridge is very proud of their view. So there are a few more locations to visit. I wanted to find the answer the easy way and did a google search.  But there don't seem to be any blogs or articles on the best scenic views across the lake. The search did retrieve a great view from the Skylon Tower. What the articles tell me is that the density of the air plays an important role. The air temperature and the water temperature are important factors.  Right now the Lake is the warmest it has been for many years but this isn't the condition needed for the towering Toronto image.  The towering Toronto image occurs most often when the water is relatively cold compared to the air temperature.  So I may have to wait until next year for this to happen. I live just under the escarpment where Beamer Park is located - with a great elevated view across the Lake. When I was there last, there were Lake Effects, so there was a "gray" across the Lake with no distinction between Lake and sky. There's a lot of ground to cover so I'll keep you posted on "Toronto From Across".

On Golden Pond

I know this isn't Niagara - instead it is Toronto Botanical Gardens.  Today's pictures again showcase TBG's Wilket Creek.  I was at Grimsby Beach yesterday, and wished for the golds and oranges to reflect in Forty Creek.  But alas, there aren't any Autumn colour reflections so far.  Maybe this weekend!

Back Doors in Toronto

Doors are everywhere in the city.  Mostly they are standard, consistent, and ordinary.  Typically, we want doors to be easy to navigate for commercial and retail use. Every once in a while a distinctive door shows up - like this one.  One can see that there is construction and renovation going on inside.  Workmen avoided the camera and dodged the picture-taking.  The door opening and door are made up a molded material in a wavy, bumpy pattern. This door isn't a secret door - one can clearly see the handle.  It seems a sister design to secret door designs.  I looked for a site covering Toronto's unusual doors, but haven't found one.  It would be fun to find out about this.

Toronto's Skyline Garden

I participate in an artists website, Redbubble.  I have an artist portfolio where my work can be purchased in many formats in addition to traditional posters, canvases, photographic and art prints.  Examples include iPhone and iPad cases, graphic t-shirts, pencil skirts, throw pillows, duvet covers, mugs, and tote bags.  I am a host on the site, hosting several groups where we feature images regularly and launch contest challenges.  My co-host, Carol, decided on a challenge in All Glorious Gardens that would feature gardens that show a city setting.   I scrolled through my portfolio and rejected images that lacked the sense of the 'city' in the setting.  Then I remembered last summer's Garden Fling with all the garden bloggers. We went to Ward's Island, one of the Toronto Islands, and took our group photo there.  I shared this view of Toronto at the time.  I don't think there are many cities that can boast this combination.  Toronto always amazes!

How Big is Toronto?

We think of size by population - typically.  But today's views of Toronto show its size on the horizon.  These are from Grimsby area landmarks.  The first is Grimsby Beach, where the Peace Garden and Pump House are located.  It used to be a popular boat landing destination. The second is from Peninsula Ridge, the winery that marks the Beamsville/Grimsby line so is the east section of town. What a remarkable difference of the clarity of the Toronto skyline.  Some days it seems to be within walking distance, and other days seems to be far away.

The Lake View at Niagara with the Grinch's Trees

The count down to Christmas has a long tradition with the Advent Calendar's little numbered flaps so that one is opened each day. This is a 'famous German tradition', and the first known Advent Calendar dates from 1851.  There are also Advent candles and Advent wreaths. Today's image of Christmas decorations has its origins more recently - in the Grinch that Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss.  If you go to Pinterest there are hilarious pictures of Green-stockinged back ends in the Christmas tree as part of the decorations.  Take a look HERE We also have a great view to Toronto with a freighter in the foreground - the CN Tower seems to be keeping the cloud line from descending on the city.

Seasons' Jump

The mums are now blooming at the garden centres.  The pop-up stand at 3rd Street and the QEW has  discount mums on the flatbed truck - a welcome transition from the kalanchoes that have been there all summer long.  So now,  the bright orange-red geraniums at my front kitchen window are now replaced with red-rust mums.  They signal the change of colours in the landscape as we move from the the lush green with fiery reds of summer to the autumn tones that are more integrated. Our photos today were taken in Marion Jarvie's garden.  The first two show the entrance in April and then in early June.  For me, it demonstrates the transition from the browns of spring to the lush greens of summer.  Isn't it interesting how the white trellis picks up the greens  around it in the second photo. I didn't notice it at the time, yet now it seems striking. The visit in Spring was April 28, a time when people are starting to garden.  So it was easy to take pictures without people.  The visit in June was with the Garden Bloggers Association, and the garden was full of people and plants.    Marion is a collector of the distinctive and the unusual so the garden writers were abuzz with discussions on everything around them.

In the Garden of Imagination

The garden of imagination is the perfect phrase to describe this garden captured here.  Located on Heath Street in Toronto, it shows how plants are artistic expressions in the landscape.  I showed this garden's sculpture of the picture frame and glass vase in an earlier post. This is a calm moment given today's headline in the Daily Mail:  "School holidays' August 1 is the day parents reach 'breaking point' with their kids." It is followed with these sub-headlines: - Survey reveals 50 per cent of British parents have had enough by August 1 - On average more than half of the holiday budget will have been spent then - Only one in five parents actually look forward to the summer holidays We in Ontario celebrate this half-way point with a Civic Holiday.  The holiday has many different names at the municipal level, so I guess the half-way point of the summer in Ontario has issues and not everyone gets the day as a holiday.  It seems like Ontario is ambivalent about the mid-way mark of Summer. Who would have guessed all this?

Wild Lupines in High Park Toronto

Today's image is of wild lupines in the Oak Savannah of High Park.  This was a first for me - I had no idea we had native lupines in Ontario.  These are small plants - maybe up to 12 inches tall. Here's the description  from the website www.highparknature.org: "About 1/3 of the park’s natural environment consists of nationally rare oak savannah, an open, park-like landscape that contains widely spaced black oaks, scattered low shrubs and a rich variety of prairie grasses and wildflowers.  Of the over 2 million ha of prairies and savannahs that once covered southern Ontario, less than 2,100ha (0.1%) remain today. The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources has identified approximately 44 hectares (110 acres) of the park's natural environment as significant oak woodlands. Experts consider the oak savannah at High Park to be "continentally significant" because it occurs near its northern limits in the park and because of the size, nature and characteristics of the remnant ecosystem. High Park shelters 41 rare plant species, 32 of which appear in the savannah. Among these plants are nationally rare woodland fern-leaf, wild lupine and cup-plant. Savannahs are dependent on periodic fire to maintain their open character and rich variety of plant species."

A City in a Park

This is the Evergreen Brickworks.  There is just so much to show you.  Today's headline 'the city in a park' is what you see on every park sign in Toronto.  Toronto considers itself a city of parks. How does this relate to the rusted wall with plants and water flowing down it?  This is the largest map of Toronto.  And it is a living wall.  It shows the major roads and major rivers/creeks in Toronto, and designed to connect us to our watersheds. It is titled Watershed Consciousness by the artist Ferruccio Sardella. Here is the link to the information by the artist on the work: https://ferrucciosardella.wordpress.com/watershed-consciousness/

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The Aga Khan Museum and Garden

I've seen the garden of the decade.  We visited the Aga Khan Museum and Garden yesterday. I will give you more information on the gardens and the design - here are some pictures for now.